Kingfisher County is a

county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

located in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

Oklahoma Oklahoma ( ; Choctaw language, Choctaw: , ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Texas to the south and west, Kansas to the north, Missouri to the northea ...

. As of the 2020 census, the population was 15,184. Its

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...

Kingfisher Kingfishers are a family, the Alcedinidae, of small to medium-sized, brightly coloured birds in the order Coraciiformes. They have a cosmopolitan distribution, with most species living in the tropical regions of Africa, Asia, and Oceania, ...

. The county was formed in 1890 and named Kingfisher by a vote of residents. The land was given to the

Creek Nation The Muscogee Nation, or Muscogee (Creek) Nation, is a List of federally recognized tribes, federally recognized Native American tribe based in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The nation descends from the historic Muscogee Confederacy, a large grou ...

by the federal government, but was taken back after the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

History

Limited archaeological surveys may have discovered evidence of pre-contact peoples, including Paleo-Indian and Archaic (6000 BC - 1 AD) groups that used the area for hunting and foraging. The historic Osage,

Cheyenne The Cheyenne ( ) are an Indigenous people of the Great Plains. The Cheyenne comprise two Native American tribes, the Só'taeo'o or Só'taétaneo'o (more commonly spelled as Suhtai or Sutaio) and the (also spelled Tsitsistas, The term for th ...

, and

Comanche The Comanche (), or Nʉmʉnʉʉ (, 'the people'), are a Tribe (Native American), Native American tribe from the Great Plains, Southern Plains of the present-day United States. Comanche people today belong to the List of federally recognized tri ...

tribes traversed the prairie grasslands of this area. Before the county's creation, The Chisholm Trail's many routes crossed the area. A stage road which paralleled the trail had important stops at Dover Station, King Fisher Station and Baker Station. The area was given to the

by the federal government after their forced removal from Georgia. At the end of the

, the Creeks were forced to cede the land back to the federal government for siding with the Confederacy. It became part of the

Unassigned Lands The Unassigned Lands in Oklahoma were in the center of the lands ceded to the United States by the Creek (Muskogee) and Seminole Indians following the Civil War and on which no other tribes had been settled. By 1883, it was bounded by the Cher ...

, and the area was opened to non-Indian settlement in the land run on April 22, 1889.Oklahoma Territory's First Land Run
(accessed May 15, 2013) Several towns, including Kingfisher, Oklahoma developed soon after the land run. Originally this area was called County 5, when the Organic Act of May 2, 1890, created Oklahoma Territory.Everett, Dianna
"Kingfisher County,"
''Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture'', Oklahoma Historical Society, 2009. Accessed April 4, 2015. At an August 5, 1890, election, the voters of County 5 overwhelmingly voted for the name "Kingfisher" over "Hennessey" and "Harrison". The origin of the name is unclear. The ''Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture'' mentions three different possibilities. The first is that the name memorialized a local rancher, David King Fisher. The second version is that King and Fisher were two different settlers, whose names were combined for the county and town. The third explanation was that the name was for a rancher named John Fisher and for whom Uncle Johns Creek was named. In November 2022, the county gained national attention when four Chinese nationals were murdered, execution-style, at a Chinese-run marijuana farm at the crossroads hamlet of Lacey, near Hennessey. Prior to that, the farm had drawn some attention to itself by having armed guards visible at its perimeters, who hasselled anyone stopping nearby, including postal delivery personnel.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (0.9%) is water. The principal waterway is the Cimarron River, which runs from northwest to east through the county.

Major highways

* U.S. Highway 81 * State Highway 3 * State Highway 33 * State Highway 51 * State Highway 132

Adjacent counties

* Garfield County (north) *

Logan County Logan County is the name of ten current counties and one former county in the United States: * Logan County, Arkansas * Logan County, Colorado * Logan County, Idaho (1889–1895) * Logan County, Illinois * Logan County, Kansas * Logan County ...

(east) * Canadian County (south) * Blaine County (west) * Major County (northwest) * Oklahoma County (southeast)

Demographics

As of the

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

of 2000, there were 13,926 people, 5,247 households, and 3,893 families residing in the county. The

population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...

was . There were 5,879 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the county was 88.09%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 1.59%

Black Black is a color that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without chroma, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.Eva Heller, ''P ...

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 3.02% Native American, 0.22% Asian, 0.01%

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...

, 4.34% from other races, and 2.74% from two or more races. 6.90% of the population were

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

or Latino of any race. By 2020, its population was 15,184. In 2000, there were 5,247 households, out of which 35.40% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 62.20% were

married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...

living together, 8.00% had a female householder with no husband present, and 25.80% were non-families. 23.50% of all households were made up of individuals, and 12.00% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.60 and the average family size was 3.08. In the county, the population was spread out, with 27.20% under the age of 18, 8.20% from 18 to 24, 26.80% from 25 to 44, 22.40% from 45 to 64, and 15.40% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females there were 95.10 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 92.90 males. The median income for a household in the county was $36,676, and the median income for a family was $43,242. Males had a median income of $30,918 versus $19,819 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...

for the county was $18,167. About 8.50% of families and 10.80% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

, including 14.30% of those under age 18 and 6.50% of those age 65 or over.

Communities

Cities and towns

* Cashion *

Dover Dover ( ) is a town and major ferry port in Kent, southeast England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies southeast of Canterbury and east of Maidstone. ...

* Hennessey *

(county seat) * Loyal * Okarche

Unincorporated communities

Alpha Alpha (uppercase , lowercase ) is the first letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of one. Alpha is derived from the Phoenician letter ''aleph'' , whose name comes from the West Semitic word for ' ...

* Four Counties Corner (formerly Lockridge) * Lacey *

Omega Omega (, ; uppercase Ω, lowercase ω; Ancient Greek ὦ, later ὦ μέγα, Modern Greek ωμέγα) is the twenty-fourth and last letter in the Greek alphabet. In the Greek numerals, Greek numeric system/isopsephy (gematria), it has a value ...

Politics

At the presidential level, Kingfisher County has voted predominantly Republican; the last Democratic presidential nominee to carry the county was

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...

1936 Events January–February * January 20 – The Prince of Wales succeeds to the throne of the United Kingdom as King Edward VIII, following the death of his father, George V, at Sandringham House. * January 28 – Death and state funer ...

Economy

Agriculture has been the mainstay of the county since the area was opened for settlement in 1899. Wheat and rye have been the most important crops. Oil and gas exploration became important to the county economy during the 1920s, especially in that part of the county around Hennessey, Cashion and Dover. Roxana was a boomtown during that period, but quickly declined its population peaked at one thousand people. It is now considered a ghost town.

Education

Kingfisher Academy, affiliated with the

Congregational Church Congregationalism (also Congregational Churches or Congregationalist Churches) is a Reformed Christian (Calvinist) tradition of Protestant Christianity in which churches practice congregational government. Each congregation independently a ...

, was established in Kingfisher well before statehood. It remained open between 1890 and 1894. In 1895, the Association of Congregational Churches of Oklahoma Territory chartered Kingfisher College, and opened it for instruction on September 2, 1895.Carolyn G. Hanneman, "Kingfisher College." ''Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture''.
Retrieved March 7, 2015.

NRHP sites

The following sites in Kingfisher County are listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

: * Burrus Mills Elevator C, Kingfisher * Dow Grain Company Elevator, Okarche * Farmers and Merchants National Bank, Hennessey * Farmers Co-op Elevator, Hennessey * Kiel-Dover Farmers Elevator, Dover * Kingfisher Armory, Kingfisher * Kingfisher College, Kingfisher *

Kingfisher Post Office The Kingfisher Post Office, also known as The Old Post Office, is the historic former post office in Kingfisher, Oklahoma. The post office was built by the Dieter & Wenzil Co. of St. Louis, Missouri; work on the building began on October 1, 1912 ...

, Kingfisher * Seay Mansion, Kingfisher